"Emancipation" From Our History Continues.
Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein is funding the rewriting of history at James Madison's Montpelier and elsewhere, while US Sen. Tim Kaine wants to erase Robert E. Lee from "Arlington House"
No trip to Virginia is complete without excursions to Arlington Cemetery, including the stately mansion at its highest point, “Arlington House.” Add to that George Washington’s Mount Vernon, a half-hour drive south along the Potomac River. It is a Commonwealth steeped in colonial and Civil War history. At the time of our founding, it was our most populous state and once encompassed what is now West Virginia and Kentucky. Four of our first five presidents were Virginians.
And if you have time, a two-hour trip toward Charlottesville should include stops at three homes of America’s founders: James Madison’s Montpelier, James Monroe’s Ashlawn, and of course, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Add visits to several great wineries in the region and perhaps Civil War battlefields, from Manassas to Chancellorsville.
And you’d better come quickly because it seems history is being rewritten here and elsewhere, largely thanks to a billionaire lefty philanthropist, David M. Rubinstein, and others. Politically incorrect statues have already been removed across the Commonwealth. Military bases in the area are being renamed. And Virginia’s junior Democratic US Senator, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 running mate, Tim Kaine, has again introduced legislation to remove Robert E. Lee’s name from Arlington House. It has long been designated as the Robert E. Lee Memorial. He inherited the place and lived there when he decided to join the rebellion. I can’t help but wonder when Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s iconic statue at the First Manassas Battlefield will be removed?
This is the same Tim Kaine who ignorantly and wrongly claimed that America created slavery on the US Senate floor. “The United States didn't inherit slavery from anybody. We created it," Kaine said in 2020. Duh. The Bible has 77 references to “slaves” and 21 more to “slavery” (NIV). Perhaps Kaine doesn’t know the Bible was written before Virginia became a British colony. This is also the same Tim Kaine who blames our 9.1 percent inflation (12 percent for food) on US tariffs imposed on China, where slavery is alive and well. The blame-America-first and economically illiterate Kaine, a former Governor of Virginia, wants to lift those tariffs, despite voting for every funding bill that increased our money supply by over 40 percent in recent times.
"It got created by the Virginia General Assembly and the legislatures of other states. It got created by the court systems in colonial America," the loquacious and erudite Kaine added. "We created it."
The New York Post recently featured the revised historical focus of Madison’s Montpelier, owned and occupied by the DuPont family a century ago.
No American flags fly at Montpelier, Madison’s plantation home in rural Virginia, and not a single display focuses on the life and accomplishments of America’s foremost political philosopher, who created our three-branch federal system of government, wrote the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers, and served two terms as president.
Instead, blindsided tourists are hammered by high-tech exhibits about Madison’s slaves and current racial conflicts, thanks to a $10 million grant from left-leaning philanthropist David M. Rubenstein.
“I was kind of thinking we’d be hearing more about the Constitution,” one baffled dad said when The Post visited the president’s home this week. “But everything here is really about slavery.”
“It’s been inspirational … I guess,” shrugged John from Wisconsin after taking the $35 guided tour. . .
“A one hour Critical Race Theory experience disguised as a tour,” groused Mike Lapolla of Tulsa, Okla., after visiting last August.
From the National Park Service’s website for Arlington House:
Arlington House is the nation’s memorial to Robert E. Lee. It honors him for specific reasons, including his role in promoting peace and reunion after the Civil War. In a larger sense it exists as a place of study and contemplation of the meaning of some of the most difficult aspects of American history: military service; sacrifice; citizenship; duty; loyalty; slavery and freedom.
When visiting this by car, make sure your maps are updated because streets are being renamed, too. Lee Highway, a major thoroughfare in Northern Virginia, has already been renamed “Langston Highway” in deep-blue Arlington, where I live. Jefferson Davis Highway - US 1 - has already been renamed in different ways in many places. As I wrote about last year, neighboring Alexandria has made it easier for residents to change the names of 68 streets named or linked to alleged confederate sympathizers or combatants. Nearby, Fairfax City’s council just went ahead and renamed theirs autocratically. They promise to reimburse residents who have to go through the laborious and expensive process of changing their addresses on driver’s licenses and the like.
Speaking of Fairfax City, their council also changed its official seal. The old seal features a confederate soldier and a “British Lord.” Who once owned the land, courtesy of a five million acre land grant from the British crown? None other than Lord Thomas Fairfax. It is not to be confused with Fairfax County, Virginia’s most populous county. Interestingly, the city isn’t contemplating changing its name. But give it time. The new seal featuring a colonial building seems fine, if boring, but it’s another example of erasing history.
Not to be outdone, Arlington is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on redoing its official county logo, which is affixed to all kinds of signage and official vehicles. It used to feature an artistic rendition of Arlington House. Recently, the local NAACP objected. Thus began work on an uninteresting, uninspiring, and meaningless new logo, a comical diamond-shaped map of Arlington's location compared to the District of Columbia and Alexandria. I think we knew that already.
I’m surprised that Sen. Kaine and my dippy Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) haven’t tried to change the name of the stunning Memorial Bridge, built in 1932 to connect Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the nation's reunification after the Civil War. The 90-year-old bridge was recently renovated and is a major Potomac River traffic crossing between the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. The word “Emancipation” seems a popular choice for renaming streets and bridges among the woke. I’m sure Philly cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal would be happy to offer up his name, and more than a few Progressives would happily follow suit. After all, a street in Paris, France, is named after him.
I want to be emancipated from all this wokeness.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m for teaching all history, the good and the bad, in context. The best and most recent book on American history is University of Oklahoma Professor Wilfred McClay’s “Our Land of Hope.” It superbly, authentically, and objectively surveys the people and eras that The Woke are working overtime to erase, rewrite, and politicize. His only agenda is historical truth, not presentism.
I’m certainly okay with preserving slave quarters at Mount Vernon and Monticello, which some of Rubenstein’s generosity has done. All to the good. We need to know how these plantations (are we still allowed to call them that?) operated and how all their residents lived and worked. I want the full story, warts and all. But not to the exclusion or expense of the remarkable contributions of our founders, nor to advance woke causes.
The military base and street names and statues are less important but still provide opportunities to teach history. Let’s rename Fort Pickett, perhaps after the late Woody Williams, the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, who was just honored at the US Capitol. They shouldn’t be used to pander or drive political agendas or punish the memories of people with complicated or nuanced histories. We have many heroes, men, and women, of all races and backgrounds worthy of honor, from George Day and Audie Murphy to Peter Salem and Harriet Tubman. There are many others. I’ve long advocated replacing Andrew Jackson’s mug on the twenty-dollar bill with Tubman or Frederick Douglass.
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Madison is the father of our Constitution, especially our Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments). Robert E. Lee, a former superintendent of West Point, played a significant role in helping reunify and nation and helped save Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, now called Washington and Lee University. Given all the books about him, Lee remains an enigmatic figure. During my first visit to Arlington House, I recall being told by a Park Ranger about how Lee wrestled sleeplessly, overnight, with the fateful decision to join his beloved Virginia in secession in a rocking chair next to his bedroom window at Arlington House. Why and how he came to that decision is important history.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Or get themselves elected to the United States Senate, apparently. Like Tim Kaine, this includes those who seek to erase or rewrite history for political, ideological, or partisan purposes. They must be defeated.
I saw the Montpelier social media go woke more than a year ago. When I complained on a post, I was literally jumped. We have to continue to go after Goliath, because Monticello is next. I saw some staff changes and got suspicious and sure enough the new chairman of trustees is an Obama operative. You cannot get through a single post from any of these sites without reference to “enslaved.” I complain every chance I get.